Dive Summary:
- With a symbolic Senate vote in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which has the support of Amazon, an online sales tax is likely a certainty.
- Online sellers are already required to collect sales taxes from customers in their own states, but the Supreme Court's 1992 ruling in Quill v North Dakota set a precedent that retailers don't always have to collect--for example, out of state companies don't have to collect taxes from customers in states where they don't have a physical presence.
- More and more states are extending sales taxes to online retailers with in-state sales affiliates, but those opposing the bill, including eBay, say the law would destroy the physical presence standard and that it would force remote retailers to interrogate customers about where they live and look up regulations for thousands of taxing jurisdictions across the country.
From the article:
... The Marketplace Fairness Act seems workable, encouraging uniformity and allowing states to collect taxes that in many cases are already owed. See Online Sales Taxes Done Right. Yet the debate is so heated that passage into law still seems unlikely. Why, then, do I suggest that paying tax will soon be inevitable? ...
